Inside the Huddle, Week 2: An Inside Look at Aztec Football

[Pumph]

Week 2: 26-32 LOSS vs Tulsa

 

What a game this was. We were always on the back foot, after giving up a first play, 70-yard TD pass to stud RB Bruce Dawson. But we kept it competitive, losing by just 6. Punting the ball away with just a minute and a half to go?????? (@Rocketcan )

I knew I wanted to run the ball more in this game, but also knowing that Tulsa was ranked nationally, and for good reason, and that our running game had struggled mightily, I decided to keep the the offense at 65% passing. I stayed with a lot of 3-wide receiver sets (47% of the time). The passing game would either carry me or sink me in this one. I liked the distribution of the passing stats in Week 1, and there was no reason to change anything. WR2 Bembry had a huge game vs UTEP and perhaps allowing him to be matched up with the other teams' second-best corner is a part of that. But the tight end has been my top target and 9/9 catches/targets in Week 1 had me keeping him as the focal point. He did not disappoint, going for 190 yards in this game. We struggled again to run the ball, which was to be expected. And Brown's fumbles again hurt us.

Bruce Dawson is a star in the making. Defensively, I decided to focus on shutting him down. The gameplan settings currently give you a lot more offensive flexibility than you have on defense, but I felt that going with more of a base, 3-4 defense and playing the run 67% of the time would help us contain Dawson. I did not think I could stop him, but limiting him seemed a reasonable goal. I blitzed conservatively, wanting to limit the screen pass and not allowing Dawson to get out into the pattern unchecked. And I decided to blitz the safeties, hoping to add them into the box against the run. Dawson still lit us up, right from the start. But we gave up several BIG plays in the passing game, maybe because we were so run-focused, but also maybe from blitzing a safety and leaving the corners on an island. Additionally, playing so much man defense, it's just very possible that Dawson was just matched up with inferior linebackers in coverage and the Tulsa WRs are just better than the SDSU corners. Something to consider for the future.

 

 

Week 2 Recruiting:

(well, Week 1's results - I'm not telling you all what I did for Week 2 just yet - I'll edit it in after Week 2 closes)

We set the bar low and it shows. Of all of the players we targeted, only 3 other teams show up as listed for the players we went after. Maybe some are on them, but farther behind, maybe they aren't on them at all - time will tell. It certainly makes me believe that I can go after some bigger fish, and I think you'll see me do just that. If no one is on some of these players, and I get 50 bonus recruiting points for having 2 matching affinities, I can probably back off of them a little and spend points elsewhere. Then again, I do need to spend enough points to trigger some of the thresholds, even though those gradually reduce, so it's not like I would drop off of them significantly. But a few extra points to freely spend each week can certainly go a long way. Hell, it's why I'm writing these weekly articles.

For the players that other teams are on, I see that I have a huge affinity advantage over them with these guys. So I should be able to bring them in, but also, if I let them hang around, their hats might also be on the table at signing day. I'm will continue to spend on these guys to make sure I get the affinity bonuses. Will be interesting to see if the other teams give up, seeing me in the mix, or keep pushing to hopefully win the uphill battle against my bonuses.

 

I did decide to add some new players to my list this week, and we'll see how it goes.

 

Come back to read how the Week 2 reveal went for me.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Pumph